


The Smell of Burnt Coffee

by kittymcphee



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: F/F, TMA, agnes montague - Freeform, agnesxgertrude, gertrude robinson - Freeform, the magnus archives - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-09
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:02:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25171297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kittymcphee/pseuds/kittymcphee
Summary: Agnes sits alone in a coffee shop. She is thinking about her girlfriend and how much she wishes she was just a normal girl. This is a one-shot because I had this idea and Agnes and Gertrude are the best pairing.
Relationships: Agnes Montague & Gertrude Robinson, Agnes Montague/Gertrude Robinson
Comments: 6
Kudos: 13





	The Smell of Burnt Coffee

Agnes sat at the same table in the same coffee shop on a Thursday afternoon that felt the same to every other Thursday afternoon she had spent thinking about where her life had gone so wrong. The single cup of coffee she always ordered usually just steamed and evaporated slowly in front of her. On any other day she would hold it and occasionally lift it, though never to her lips. it was like a fun little game she played with herself. She wondered how well she gave off the impression of a normal woman drinking a very normal, if oddly warm, cup of coffee.

She wasn’t able to control herself that well today. All that was left at the bottom of the mug was a bubbling sludge. The table top had warped slightly under the inferno of her fingers and she perched on the edge of the seat to try and prevent anything from actively catching on fire. She was rather proud of the fact that nothing was smoking at the moment given the emotions rampaging through her thoughts and oozing out of her like magma crawling forth from a volcano.

The bubbling ooze in Agnes’ cup calmed as she thought of the first, and only, time that Gertrude had given her flowers. The delicate hand off between them had been for nothing as the plastic around the blooms melted immediately and dripped onto the carpet, igniting it. The flowers were quickly reduced to sweet smelling ashes that floated down around a stomping Gertrude while Agnes turned red at the note she had managed to glimpse before it all went up in flames. The note that read “You light a fire in my heart.’ Such a cheesy joke from such a stern person.

The ooze began to boil again as her thoughts turned to the events of the day before.

_I’m just not...normal._

It’s the type of thought that often goes through the mind but it was extremely visceral for Agnes. A normal woman wouldn’t destroy things by touching them. She certainly wouldn’t destroy people by touching them. A normal woman wouldn’t destroy herself by trying to touch the person she loves.

_No matter how much she loves me I’ll never be normal. We will never have a normal life._

Gertrude had always been a pragmatist and never demanded more from Agnes. The archivist seemed to enjoy simply being in her presence and discussing almost anything that came to mind. Agnes hadn’t felt quite so human with anyone before. Even those moments that clearly demonstrated her inhumanity seemed to be inconsequential to Gertrude. After the flowers Gertrude had taken to buying metal gifts that were less likely to melt in the time it took for Agnes to admire them.

Yesterday was the first time Gertrude had asked for more from Agnes. Gertrude had suggested it without any kind of pressure. She wanted to hold Agnes’ hand. She asked if Agnes could do the reverse of concentrating the heat in her hand until it melted. She asked if Agnes could try pulling out the heat or even freezing her hand so that they could touch for just a moment.

The thing was Agnes would try anything for her. She just didn’t think it would work. She didn't know that Gertrude’s warmth would touch the stiff, icy wax of her hand. She didn't expect that Gertrude would even be able to intertwine their fingers. Worst of all, as they smiled at their first touch, she should have predicted that such a touch would reignite everything so quickly that it would burn her loved one.

The cup began to rattle and Agnes allowed one tear to escape and evaporate away. The cup cooled down as Agnes decided to focus instead on the good. That for one moment she had held Gertrude’s hand. That afterward, Gertrude had bandaged herself and simply replied “It wasn’t as bad as it could have been. And it would have been worth it even if I had lost the hand.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic on here! It may be short but I am proud of it anyway.


End file.
